Image input devices, such as digital cameras, have a limited field of view (FOV) and produce images representing only a small portion of the surrounding area. Conventional image acquisition methods addressing the need for larger fields of view have included optical approaches, such as fish eye lenses. Conventional large FOV image acquisition approaches have substantial limitations, in particular they exhibit distortion, particularly at the image edges.
Prior art systems and methods are not capable of solving the problems in the conventional wide-viewfield image input methods, nor are they capable of acquiring wide-viewfield images having a high degree of resolution without employment of a larger pixel array.